


Leap and spin

by vanishing_apples



Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 16:11:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17227193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanishing_apples/pseuds/vanishing_apples
Summary: When a younger god of war decided to spend bonding time with his new comrade - the god of destruction, he didn’t expect it to be over dancing.





	Leap and spin

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write them dancing together but then the fic gained a mind of its own and ate me alive. Beware of dubious timeframe.

“Ack! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry ohmigosh are you alright??”

Grimnir sputtered, frantically withdrawing the pointed heel of his metal boot from atop Shiva’s foot. Blood rushed to his face and pounded in his ears, loud enough to stifle the music pouring with orange candlelight out of the arched window frame. 

Panic coursing his veins, Grimnir dared not look up, lest he be faced with Shiva’s wrath for stepping on him for the third time that evening. Vasuki’s beady eyes twinkled at them from a tree’s branch, amused as they were judgmental. 

“Pay no heed, failure is but a natural part of learning.”- Shiva sounded unfazed, in fact, as cool as his ice blue gaze under which Grimnir was trying to make himself as small as possible.

“Ah… Right… Sorry for that, haha…”

“Calm down. Unease lies at the root of your continuous failures.” - Shiva calmly readjusted the wind primal’s hand, which had slid halfway off his shoulder. “This is not meant to be torture. Do you not see those children of men thoroughly enjoying themselves?”

“But why did it have to be ballroom dancing!?” - Grimnir whined.

His proposal to ‘get to know each other better’ was bound to the expectation of a sparring session, or anything along the lines. Who would have thought the deity of destruction’s passion and thus, his bonding activity of choice, would be dancing? Calling Grimnir’s reaction to finding Shiva alone at the back of his own shrine, moving his body to the ritualistic music played by his mortal worshippers bafflement would be an understatement. Not that it looked bad, by any means. On the contrary, Grimnir had found himself quite captivated by the performance for a good few minutes until Shiva took notice of his presence.

“I’d rather we did that cool ceremonial dance you were doing…” - Grimnir mumbled with a small pout.

“Your current footwear is not the most ideal for the toll your legs must endure for that particular style.” - Glancing down at Grimnir’s heels, the premonishing vision of the wind primal’s slender legs snapping under the required curvature flashed through Shiva’s mind. - “And I see no reason for such bias when this is your first time experiencing the art. Do you not often call yourself ‘the dancing windstorm’?”

“Y-Yeah! I am the god of war, the gale of victory which tears battlefields asunder!!”

“Right. Then focus, but don’t forget to relax.”

Grimnir was still rigid in Shiva’s hold, but the waltz melting into a more relaxed, leisurely tempo would drain some tension out of him. Mumbling words of encouragement in tandem with the swaying rhythm, Shiva lead at a slow pace, all the while pushing some distance in between them to have a better look at his partner. 

Even with eyes downcast and face twisted in heavy, distilled tension, Grimnir exuded an uncanny grace. Soft silver gilding his features, the wind primal was draped in an additional veil of etherealness which matched the softness of his hand clasped in Shiva’s own. The fire primal almost dared not hold it too tightly, lest the excessive force caused all of Grimnir to dissolve from his natural heat like the morning mist. 

Around them the velvety night was speckled with light: star-studded indigo sky cradling the sleepy ground over which fireflies hovered in swarms, some taking to the air in golden vortexes. With Grimnir’s steadying grasp of the basic footwork, the primal beasts strayed further and further from the mansion’s windowsill, letting their instincts and natural sense of rhythm guide their steps. 

Soothed by the tranquility of an autumn night’s spectacle, Grimnir began to relax. The chilled evening breeze brushed and billowed, giving him encouraging pushes and making him more thankful for Shiva’s heat which dulled the air’s cold edge. 

Spin after spin after spin, they glided across the moonlit cobblestones. Music dimmed with the distancing candle light, but Grimnir’s noisy heart maintained the beat. As his anxiety dissipated, restless thumps too would diminish, allowing the melodic droning of insects to take over. His attentiveness at their synchronised footwork waning, Grimnir’s ginger gaze crept upward, from Shiva’s chiseled muscles peeking through the gaps of his armour to his face.

Haloing a visage whose brilliance rivaled that of the full moon, darkness spilled out from Shiva’s head into the sky in jet black ribbons, gently floating around them as if suspended in time. The fire primal’s expression was of an impeccable balance - the harmonious copresence of unparalleled serenity and near childish delight.

Grimnir had seen this before, this precarious but wondrous equilibrium. Might and grace, both were equally imbued in every step, every movement of Shiva’s ceremonial dance. Empowering while striking fear, inciting awe as it commanded respect. Perfectly encapsulating the perfect balance which epitomised Shiva’s existence as a deity of destruction and creation, the dance had had Grimnir mesmerised. And now, with Shiva himself in such close proximity, he got to relive that moment’s wonder intensified by tenfold.

Grimnir blamed the swarms of fireflies around them for the warmth settling on his cheeks, conveniently forgetting that their bioluminescence was heatless. 

“God of war, your complexion is abnormal. Are you not feeling well?” 

Crud. He was caught dead staring. Even worse, there was genuine concern in Shiva’s voice. Concern and undivided attention that Grimnir had had _very_ little experiencing, owing to an often absentee mentor and spending so much of his time alone. 

“N-n-no!! Wait, yes!! Wait… I mean, I’m fine!” - Grimnir cleared his throat. - “Ahem…! Pay me no needless concern, dear comrade! Your eyes play tricks on you, aided by the moonlight’s pale, bewitching spell. My vigour has yet to diminish, and I would really prefer it if we… we…”

Shiva was closing in, for some forsaken reason, leaning down in an attempt to touch Grimnir’s forehead with his own. Bringing with him ever smouldering heat that had his partner in a near chokehold.

“I have seen children of men checking each other for ailments in this manner. Hold still.”

“No there’s really no need!! I told you I’m fine you can let go now Shiva PLEASE!!!”

The proximity prompted much more than cold sweat beading Grimnir’s near feverish skin. Responding to his distress, a powerful gale rushed down from the heavens to the wind god’s rescue. Wrapping around their bodies, it flung both primals into the air with explosive force. 

Grimnir started screaming. 

“AAAAAAHH I’M SORRYYYYYYY!” 

His fingers still hooked in Shiva’s - who somehow maintained his calm throughout their rapid ascent - Grimnir was glowing a couple shades darker than beet red. Even as they slowed to a halt, air continued to rush by in harsh yet aimless torrents, as if to mirror Grimnir’s turbulent state of mind. 

Far from his initial unease, Shiva was now more amused by the intensity and variety of Grimnir’s emotional reactions. This _god’s_ passion is terribly reminiscent of how the children of men emoted, he thought. Grimnir, then, would be a rare breed among his own kind.

“This is no cause for despair. But first you need to calm down.”

“I swear I didn’t mean it!! I don’t know what happened but all of a sudden my heart was FREAKING OUT and then the rest of me did too and then we were flying it all happened so fast I-”

Grimnir seemed trapped in a thick bubble of panic. A soundproof one, no less.

“Grimnir.”

Pulling Grimnir into his chest, Shiva made an attempt to soothe the babbling youth the only way he knew how, as observed from the customs of his adherents. Grimnir’s small frame was effectively swallowed whole in his four-armed embrace. In response, every muscle on war god’s body froze in place.

“Does this help?” - Shiva asked, oblivious to his having only amplified the cause for Grimnir’s distress in the first place. 

But Grimnir would be lying had he claimed it was of little help. After the initial shock and his panic had reached a pinnacle, it plateaued and soon sizzled out, replaced by Shiva’s imposing but comforting warmth. He might not have the guts to return the hug, but Grimnir could allow himself to lean into this heat, a gesture of which Shiva was wholly appreciative.

“Thanks...” - Grimnir’s cheeks were still tinted with pink when they parted. - “I apologise. Getting you dragged up here with me was so uncool… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to live down this emba…”

His first glance at Shiva since their ascent cut Grimnir’s words short. His majestic black mane was in a state of tragic disarray, likely from being pulled in so many directions by his chaotic gales. Coupled with the solemn cluelessness on Shiva’s face, the fire primal’s look catapulted Grimnir’s mood to the other end of the spectrum in hacking fits of laughter.

“I’d love to be filled in as to what you find so amusing, god of war.” - Shiva raised an eyebrow, gladdened to see his partner’s mood improved as he was befuddled. 

“Sorry! Sorry! It’s just…” - Grimnir tried his best to enunciate amidst his wheezing. - “Your hair!”

He was almost regretful of alerting Shiva and prompting him to fix his hair. With both of them now privy to the other’s less than dignified aspects, Grimnir felt much more at ease. His laughter might have subsided, but the toothy grin simply refused to peel from his face. 

Fortunately, it was an expression Shiva did not hate seeing on him. With every change of Grimnir’s colourful emotions, Shiva only found himself more captivated, more eager to observe this strange specimen of a god. 

“Whew… That was… something.” 

“Indeed. I’d say that was quite… What did the children of men call it… ‘rad’?”

As if Shiva wasn’t confused enough by Grimnir’s jaw dropping open at the sound of the word, his subsequent giggling was even more puzzling.

“Do tell, was my usage of the term faulty?”

“Not really! I just… never expected you to be this chill, I guess.” - Grimnir replied with a flick of a tear from his eye’s corner.

“Huh, ‘chill’, you say. You seem knowledgeable about the children of men’s modern lingo. I’d like to learn more.”

“Wha… You’re serious!?”

Shiva nodded with evident resolve, causing Grimnir’s jaw to drop even lower.

“Ah...Okay. We should probably get down first, though. Your snake friend must be worried, too.”

“Agreed.”

But many minutes would pass without much descending taking place. Awkward silence hung over them. 

“...Grimnir?”

“...I think I got too excited earlier.” - Grimnir’s cheerful expression had crumpled to one close to tears. “We’re _really_ high up now so… it’ll take a while for us to get down. I’m sorry...”

It was Shiva’s turn to chuckle. The warm timbre of his voice not only worked wonders on Grimnir’s dampened mood, it also caused his chest to stir and his skin to tingle with an unfamiliar, ardent yearning.

“It’s fine. There is no good cause for haste at present.” - Giving Grimnir’s head a small, encouraging pat, Shiva fought the desire to weave his fingers into the wind primal’s silver locks, in awe of how soft they were. - “Besides, the night is still young, and this might be my only opportunity to dance under this many stars.”

As Shiva took his hands, Grimnir’s cheeks once again glowed with warmth. He silently cursed the lack of fireflies to blame the his own physiological reaction on this time.

“So, god of war, may I have this next dance?”

Grimnir swallowed, feeling quite blinded by rim of golden moonlight framing Shiva’s criminally handsome countenance. Even the river of stars overhead seemed to gleam in encouragement, beckoning his further descent into this downward spiral of foreign passions that Shiva had just ignited.

“...Yes!” 

As was the tactic in both love and war, certain times would call for blind leaps of faith.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m eternally thankful for how Cygames decided to characterise Shiva with his playable edition. The idea of him being the cute, sympathetic, albeit slightly out of touch one not only slays my heart, it softens the popular dynamic between him and Grimnir so much it’s insane. I’ll love you forever even if you don’t come to my team Shiva ;;
> 
> Anyway this ship went from being moron x morosexual to double moron energy bakappuru so I wanted to write something which hopefully reflects that. It probably doesn’t but I tried. 
> 
> Come yell at me @vanishingapples


End file.
